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Duveen: A Life in Art
Meryle Secrest, biographer of Kenneth Clark (“Riveting . . . enthralling” – Wall Street Journal ) and Bernard Berenson (“A remarkable tour de force”–Sir Harold Acton), brings all her exceptional gifts to the story of Lord Duveen of Millbank. Her book is the first major biography in more than fifty years of the supreme international art dealer of the twentieth century and the first to make use of the enormous Duveen archive that spans a century and has, until recently, been kept under lock and key at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The story begins with Duveen père, a Dutch Jew immigrating to Britain in 1866, establishing a business in London, going from humble beginnings in an antiques shop to a knighthood celebrating him as one of the country’s leading art dealers. Duveen père could discern an Old Master beneath layers of discolored varnish. He perfected the chase, the subterfuges, the strategies, the double dealings. He had an uncanny ability to spot a hidden treasure. It was called “the Duveen eye.” His son, Joseph, grew up with it and learned it all–and more . . .
Secrest tells us how the young Duveen was motivated from the beginning by the thrill of discovery; how he ascended, at twenty-nine, to (de facto) head of the business; how he moved away from the firm’s emphasis on tapestries and Chinese porcelains toward the more speculative, more lucrative, more exciting business of dealing in Old Masters. We see a demand for these paintings growing in America, fueled by the new “squillionaires” just at the moment when British aristocrats with great art collections were losing their fortunes . . . how Duveen’s whole career was based on the simple Europe has the art; America, the money.
Secrest shows how he sold hundreds of masterpieces by Bellini, Botticelli, Giotto, Raphael, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Watteau, Velázquez, Vermeer, and Titian, among others, by convincing such self-made Americans as Morgan, Frick, Huntington, Widener, Bache, Mellon, and Kress that ownership of great art would ennoble them, and while waving such huge sums at the already noble British owners that the art changed hands and all were happy.
We discover Duveen’s connection to Buckingham how when the Prince of Wales became Edward VII his first act was to call in Duveen Brothers as decorators (something had to be done with the lugubrious Victorian décor and ghastly tartan hangings); how Duveen supplied the tapestries and rugs for the coronation ceremonies in Westminster Abbey; and how, in 1933, he became Lord Duveen of Millbank. We learn about the controversies in which he became embroiled and about his legendary art espionage (a network of hotel employees spied on his clients to discover their tastes).
Duveen was as generous as he was acquisitive, giving away hundreds of thousands of pounds to British institutions (the Tate Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum–including rooms to house the Elgin Marbles), organizing exhibitions for young artists, writing books about British art, and playing a major role in the design of the National Gallery in Washington.
Meryle Secrest’s Duveen fascinates as it contributes to our understanding of art as commerce and our grasp of American and English taste in the grand manner.
As Andrew Mellon once said, paintings never looked as good as they did when Duveen was standing in front of them.
The story begins with Duveen père, a Dutch Jew immigrating to Britain in 1866, establishing a business in London, going from humble beginnings in an antiques shop to a knighthood celebrating him as one of the country’s leading art dealers. Duveen père could discern an Old Master beneath layers of discolored varnish. He perfected the chase, the subterfuges, the strategies, the double dealings. He had an uncanny ability to spot a hidden treasure. It was called “the Duveen eye.” His son, Joseph, grew up with it and learned it all–and more . . .
Secrest tells us how the young Duveen was motivated from the beginning by the thrill of discovery; how he ascended, at twenty-nine, to (de facto) head of the business; how he moved away from the firm’s emphasis on tapestries and Chinese porcelains toward the more speculative, more lucrative, more exciting business of dealing in Old Masters. We see a demand for these paintings growing in America, fueled by the new “squillionaires” just at the moment when British aristocrats with great art collections were losing their fortunes . . . how Duveen’s whole career was based on the simple Europe has the art; America, the money.
Secrest shows how he sold hundreds of masterpieces by Bellini, Botticelli, Giotto, Raphael, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Watteau, Velázquez, Vermeer, and Titian, among others, by convincing such self-made Americans as Morgan, Frick, Huntington, Widener, Bache, Mellon, and Kress that ownership of great art would ennoble them, and while waving such huge sums at the already noble British owners that the art changed hands and all were happy.
We discover Duveen’s connection to Buckingham how when the Prince of Wales became Edward VII his first act was to call in Duveen Brothers as decorators (something had to be done with the lugubrious Victorian décor and ghastly tartan hangings); how Duveen supplied the tapestries and rugs for the coronation ceremonies in Westminster Abbey; and how, in 1933, he became Lord Duveen of Millbank. We learn about the controversies in which he became embroiled and about his legendary art espionage (a network of hotel employees spied on his clients to discover their tastes).
Duveen was as generous as he was acquisitive, giving away hundreds of thousands of pounds to British institutions (the Tate Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum–including rooms to house the Elgin Marbles), organizing exhibitions for young artists, writing books about British art, and playing a major role in the design of the National Gallery in Washington.
Meryle Secrest’s Duveen fascinates as it contributes to our understanding of art as commerce and our grasp of American and English taste in the grand manner.
As Andrew Mellon once said, paintings never looked as good as they did when Duveen was standing in front of them.
544 pages, Hardcover
First published September 21, 2004
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About the author
Meryle Secrest
29 books33 followersMeryle Secrest was born and educated in Bath, England, and lives in Washington, DC. She is the author of twelve biographies and was awarded the 2006 Presidential National Humanities Medal.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 3, 2018
Fascinating read into the mind of the man who founded the modern American art collecting practice.
March 31, 2015
This is a book about a topic I've never read about: the "business" of art dealing.
It was very interesting and informative. I'd highly recommend reading it either right before, or right after, a visit to the Frick Collection and Morgan Library in New York.
What brought this book down to 3 starts, however, was the writing. Not so much the writing, which was interesting, but the organization. It kind of jumped around a bit and in places was hard to follow a train of thought or sequence of events. So there'd be a well-written paragraph, followed by another well-written paragraph on a totally different topic.
It could have used a solid editing for organization and structure
It was very interesting and informative. I'd highly recommend reading it either right before, or right after, a visit to the Frick Collection and Morgan Library in New York.
What brought this book down to 3 starts, however, was the writing. Not so much the writing, which was interesting, but the organization. It kind of jumped around a bit and in places was hard to follow a train of thought or sequence of events. So there'd be a well-written paragraph, followed by another well-written paragraph on a totally different topic.
It could have used a solid editing for organization and structure
June 25, 2013
A history lesson and a look into the mind of a man who began selling Delft pottery and ended up selling Rembrandts and Boticellis among other great masters to some of the early American Millionaires then manipulated them into building and donating their collections to the National Museum in D.C.. For non-fiction it is a page turner.
May 1, 2008
What's amazing is how little has changed. It still takes the same Duveen mentality to push the art pieces around. Read Volpe's _Framed_, almost the same tale, fastforwarded many decades. Feigen's recent memoir speaks to the same patterns, other cities, other quarters, same brain cells.
May 6, 2008
I wish I could be as influential as Joseph Duveen was in the history of art dealing and collecting. He did some shady deals and he was a shady character, but he brought Renaissance art to American collectors. Really he just brought art to America.
April 2, 2008
How to be a really successful art dealer...even if you have to sell your soul along with the painting.
April 2, 2015
Very interesting topic for an art lover. I can't wait to examine all the art at NGA, Morgan and Frick collections again.
I found the book a bit disorganized though.
I found the book a bit disorganized though.
January 23, 2011
Very good. Review to come
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews